How to Further Court the Isolation and Pariah Status of Vladimir Putin’s Russia

Earlier in the year president Obama made an equivocation that he would “Court” isolation for Russia over its pariah status due to the crisis in Ukraine. Less than six months later he may finally be getting the opportunity to completely isolate Russia from the international community. With the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by Russian equipped Ukrainian rebels using a Russian made SA-11 surface to air missile launcher. Russia has been coming tantalizingly close to becoming a pariah state without actually being designated so. That’s not to say that they have not done good things in the interim whether it be Iranian nuclear talks, Syria chemical weapons destruction, or even the timely supplying of Iraq with soviet made Sukhoi fighter jets. But when those 298 civilians in Malaysian air MH17 fell from the sky in a blazing inferno, well the tape on the entire newscasts speaks for itself.

The tragedy is worse enough be it on purpose or not but for Russian television to insist that Ukraine was aiming for President Vladimir Putin’s plane, but accidentally hit the Malaysian Air flight this to me is arrogance on the level of courting war. In 2008 Russia thought that it could turn war on and off with Georgia like a water faucet. But that war (which was began by the Russians) was not stopped by them but rather by the fast wheeling and dealing diplomacy of the Bush administration. So then now fast forward to immediately following the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and Russia intervenes in Ukrainian politics by sending in masked gun men to foment revolution amongst the mostly Russian speaking citizens of eastern Ukraine, and Crimea. Again Russia treats this war as though they can turn it on and off as they wish. I’m here to tell you today that Russia may be able to control their variables when it comes to starting a war, but nowhere by no one is it possible to control the variables that will end a war, at a place and time of their choosing.

So then the logical question then is what is next? Well for one the U.S. can start by sending in American Special Forces that will work alongside Ukrainian Special Forces to safely and quickly secure the crash site which stretches some five miles. They can also do well to secure a route of safe passage for the NTSB, FBI, and international organizations that need to get to the crash site to conduct investigations. After the wreckage has been secured and everyone of import no longer needs to be there we can then begin to gain the popular support which is needed to not only defeat the Russian incursion into Ukraine, but also to isolate Russia on the world stage. Russia as of late has become a State Sponsor of Terrorism. This represents a grave and growing threat to the United States of America and its allies. By labeling the Russian Federation a state sponsor of terrorism this will allow for the U.S. and its allies to impose stricter sanctions on Russia and its public private entities. This is the first step towards isolation of Mr. Putin and his allies, and the making of Mr. Putin into a pariah. The second step is to announce at the United Nations during the opening of the general assembly this summer that the United States along with its allies are going to be taking steps at the U.N. to, barring a change in leadership, remove Russia first temporarily then permanently from the U.N. security council.

I think that these are the most prudent steps that we can take short of war. Russia cannot and will not be allowed to shot down commercial airliners as it wishes. These are extremely dangerous times and with Russia actively engaging in preventing the U.S. from ameliorating the conditions in countries in the Middle East to Europe this is something than cannot and shall not be accepted. I pray for those that were aboard MH17 as well as their family members and I also pray that may God have mercy upon Vladimir Putin’s soul for equipping the Ukrainian dissidents with technology that can blow a Boeing 777 filled with close to 300 people out of the sky.